Eric Ortiz Fundraiser

Dear friends, family, and kind-hearted supporters,

We are reaching out on behalf of our dear friend Eric Ortiz, who recently underwent surgery. What was expected to be a short recovery turned into a longer and more difficult hospital stay due to unexpected complications. As you can imagine, this has brought about added emotional and financial stress.

Eric is a dedicated, kind, and resilient person who has always shown up for others — now, it’s our turn to show up for him. We are asking for your help to ease the burden of the unexpected expenses that have come with this extended hospitalization and recovery process.

Any amount you can give — no matter how small — will make a big difference. Your support will go directly toward medical costs, transportation, and essential living expenses while Eric focuses on healing.

Thank you for your generosity, prayers, and continued support during this time. Please share this campaign with others who might be willing to help.

With gratitude,

The Family of Eric Ortiz

details from Antoinette …

The night of February 28, 2025 after Eric and Antoinette led Bible study at their home Eric realized there was a lot of blood in his stools. He was immediately taken to the hospital. After being hospitalized for four nights and many tests run, they found the bleeding was coming from a few ulcers. While GI did the endoscopy they found a mass that needed to be biopsied. March 28, 2025 results came back and it was confirmed he had a 5.4 x 3.3 cm GIST cancer mass. April 4th he was back at the hospital for more bleeding. After seeing his Cancer doctor they referred him to the surgeon to get the mass removed. He had surgery on June 16, 2025. They did a partial gastrectomy with gastrojejunostomy reconstruction. In basic words they removed half of his stomach where the tumor was located and re-attached his small intestine to the opposite side to reconstruct flow. The night of surgery he was vomiting blood severely so they rushed him back into surgery and had to put 6 clips on the GJ staple line that attaches the stomach and intestines. During that procedure he aspirated and blood settled in his lungs. He was put on the ventilator and sent to ICU where he stayed a few days. He was released to PCU on the 20th. Throughout the week he had many episodes of vomiting and contrast X-rays show the fluids are not passing out of his stomach. He has remained with the nasogastric tube that goes down hose nose into his stomach to constantly suction drainage. On Friday the 26th they attempted by endoscopy to install a PEG tube but the small intestine is severely inflamed that they barely got the camera in to see. They overnighted a PEG-J tube in hopes to arrive Monday. They let him start clear liquids Saturday the 28th for comfort. Because he has the nasogastric tube it immediately sucks out what he takes in. Today marks 2 weeks he has not eaten food by mouth and how long we have been in the hospital. He will undergo another procedure when the part comes in. The PEG-J tube is a type of feeding tube that combines a gastros-tomy tube (G-tube) (placed in the stomach) with a jejunostomy tube (J-tube) (placed in the jejunum, a part of the small in-testine). This allows for both gastric drainage and jejunal feeding. Once they see that his body accepts this new tube and Antoinette is trained well enough he will be sent home to recover. The timeframe of needing this tube is to be determined on how ever long the swelling takes to go down. So far his doctor suspects he will be out of work until September. Full recovery can be anywhere from 3-6 months. In the midst of this trial, with many set backs, suffering, waiting and the unknowns God is faithful. God brought the cancer to light by a bleeding ulcer and his word says he will never leave us nor forsake us. We know God is our healer and in his perfect timing Eric will be fully restored better than before.